Maqam Keys مقامQuarter-tone retuner for your keyboard, Logic Pro and Cubase. Plays its own sounds, or sends retuned MIDI to your DAW.
Sound: offMIDI: not connected
Click Start to turn on sound and MIDI. Play with the mouse, your computer keys (A W S E D F T G Y H U J K; Z/X change octave) or a MIDI keyboard.
Maqam
Only the maqam's half-flat notes are retuned. The other keys stay at normal pitch, so you can still play accidentals, e.g. B♭ when descending in Rast. A depth of 50 cents is an exact quarter-tone. Many players lower these notes a bit less (around 35–45 cents), so adjust by ear.
Sound
Turn the built-in sound off when you are sending MIDI to Logic or Cubase so you only hear your DAW instrument.
Keys & tuning — click ½♭ to lower or restore any note (like the quarter-tone buttons on an oriental keyboard). Fine-tune in cents.
Octave: C3 (computer keys). Uses the Logic/Cubase convention: middle C = C3 = MIDI 60.
In maqamQuarter-tone (½♭)Tonic
MIDI — to Logic Pro / Cubase
Split works with every VST: load your instrument twice, one track per channel (see the green box and “How to connect”). The pitch bend range must match your instrument's setting: 2 for normal VSTs, usually 48 for MPE instruments. With Keyswitches on, the 12 keys starting at the chosen note toggle ½♭ on each note name while you play. With Program Change on, program 1, 2, 3… selects the maqam in the order shown above.
How to connect to Logic Pro and Cubase
1 · Create a virtual MIDI cable
Mac: open Audio MIDI Setup → Window › Show MIDI Studio → double-click IAC Driver → tick Device is online. Windows: install the free loopMIDI (by Tobias Erichsen) and add a port.
2 · In this page
Use Chrome or Edge (Safari does not support Web MIDI). Click Start and allow MIDI access. Choose your keyboard as the input and IAC Driver Bus 1 (or the loopMIDI port) as the output. Turn the built-in sound off.
3 · In Cubase
On your instrument track, set MIDI Input to the IAC/loopMIDI port, not your keyboard. Otherwise you will hear each note twice.
4 · In Logic Pro
Logic receives notes from every MIDI input, so stop it listening to your keyboard directly. In Logic Pro › Settings › MIDI › Inputs, untick your keyboard and leave the IAC Driver ticked. If your Logic version doesn't have this list, the page's output still works; just keep in mind you will also hear the unretuned notes from the keyboard.
5 · Split mode: any VST, chords included (recommended)
Normal VSTs (Kontakt libraries, Omnisphere, Keyscape, most samplers and synths) can only apply one pitch bend to the whole instrument at a time. Split mode works around this: notes at normal pitch go out on channel 1 and quarter-tone notes go out on channel 2, with a fixed pitch bend so that channel is permanently a quarter-tone lower. You load the same VST twice with the same preset, one track for each channel. Together they play the maqam, and chords work. The green box above shows the current routing. Cubase (easiest with two ports): in Audio MIDI Setup → IAC Driver, add a second bus with the + button (on Windows, add a second loopMIDI port). Here, set Output = Bus 1 and “Quarter-tone notes to” = Bus 2. In Cubase, set track 1's MIDI input to Bus 1 and track 2's to Bus 2. Arm or monitor both tracks. Logic Pro: create two software-instrument tracks with the same instrument. In each track's inspector, set MIDI Channel to 1 and 2. Turn on Settings › Recording › Auto demix by channel if multitrack recording, then record-enable both tracks. Each track then plays and records only its own channel. (The two-port method also works in Logic.) In both DAWs: set the pitch bend range in the instrument to match this page (2 is the default here). Then click Send bend range / MPE setup, which also sends the fixed quarter-tone bend to channel 2. If you fine-tune individual notes, extra channels (3, 4…) appear in the green box, and each one needs its own track.
6 · Set up the instrument (other modes)
MPE mode (chords and polyphony): turn on MPE in the instrument and set its pitch bend range to match this page (48 is standard). Instruments that support this include Alchemy, Sculpture and Sampler in Logic, Retrologue and HALion in Cubase, and Vital, Serum 2, Pigments, Kontakt (MPE scripts) and Equator. Single-channel mode (any instrument): set the instrument's pitch bend range to the same value here (2 is fine). This retunes one note at a time, so it suits melodies (oud, ney, violin, solo lines) but not chords. When notes overlap, the newest note's tuning applies to all of them.
Tip
Click Send bend range / MPE setup after the DAW is listening. Many instruments will set their bend range from this message automatically.